This represents a significant turnaround from the previous quarter where the figures were 25% and 60%, respectively. What these figures also indicate is that there has been a small but significant swing away from other operating systems, which slipped from 15% last quarter down to 10% this quarter. RIM is floundering, at around 6%, compared with 21% in Q3 of 2010. Other operating systems, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 make up the remainder.

NPD Data described the situation as a two-horse race and as far as operating systems go, that is very much the case. But when the numbers are broken down into handsets, the iPhone is, by far, the smartphone of choice. The iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS are the top three in terms of sales – so in that regard Apple has a massive lead.

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Your only looking at one quarter and stating that it represents total market share, WRONG, the one quarter your looking at represents just that quarter, not total market share.

Android is at 46.3 percent while Apple is at 30 percent. Data from ComScore, another independent metrics company, shows a similar scenario.

So did Apple grow in overall smartphone market share from the third to fourth quarter? Sure. But so did Android. And Android grew quite a bit more, gauging by Nielsen’s measurements — twice as much, with a total share increase of 3.5 points compared to Apple’s 1.7.

So yea, Apple didn’t get squashed as badly as it usually does per quarter, but it still got crushed by nearly 2 to 1 and is still no where near Android market share.